Video Chat: The future of shopping and customer service

The technological era that we live in is quickly changing the attention-span of humans by providing instant gratification and a wide variety of choices at the same time. It leads to FOMO even when it comes to shopping. The relationship between customers and businesses is in severe need of personalized experiences for the well-being of both.

From finding your favorite product on Instagram to scrolling across multiple e-commerce applications, virtual shopping is the newest fad. The only gap that a retail outlet can fill is to annex out as a virtual retail store. This means implementing video calling and providing a virtual retail shopping experience to customers sitting miles away from the physical store.

India, as a marketplace, is brimming with online shopping opportunities. According to the Indian E-Commerce Industry Analysis report, online shoppers are expected to reach 220 million by 2025. Digitizing the shopping and customer service experience and making the whole brand journey highly engaging through video chat is the only way to personalize the future of shopping.

What are the key benefits of a video chat feature for your business?

Individual Experience: Imagine you are at a retail outlet of your favorite clothing brand in a shopping mall. You passed the time while waiting for your date to arrive, but you like the blue leather jacket you saw. Just as you were about to take it to the trial room, your date calls, and you decide to leave the store.

How convenient will it be if, later on, a customer service staff could give you a closer look and better understanding of the product(s) that you liked? By having a human touch and replicating the in-store experience, a business can have a significant advantage over their competitors. Moreover, who doesn’t like human attention?

Happy customers: In the world of cut-throat competition, it is important to stay authentic and valuable at the same time. There are only so many products that you can sell, which will be different from your competitors.

Providing consistent customer satisfaction is what will set you aside from your competitors and earn their loyalty—having a video chat option for redressing your customer issues can result in a complete paradigm shift. You are now a step ahead of your competitors and heading towards long-term growth.

Integrated communication & Improved sales: Communication has evolved a great deal through time. The number one factor that influences conversions to date is an effective form of communication. With things getting digital, brands and stores pay more attention to what they say and how they say it.

People consume many videos, and the reason why more and more brands are integrating emotions with video content is for the same reason. Businesses can now expect customers to reach out to them through multiple channels. The businesses’ responsibility is to provide an equally seamless service through all the media and can often be tricky.

With the help of Omnichannel communications, a brand can streamline the customer experience across physical and digital channels to provide a uniform impression of the brand’s identity. By implementing solutions such as video calling backed by features like live chat and telephonic support, trained sales staff can customize a sales funnel depending on a customer’s preferred communication channel. It is interesting to note how video chat features have significantly reduced cart abandonments for online businesses.

Improved support for differently-abled customers: Differently abled customers who often shy away from visiting a physical store, due to the obvious difficulties involved, can be handheld for a near-real experience.

This can be achieved with the help of technology and trained customer support staff. It significantly improves the audience base of a business and highlights it over its competitors.

Pro Tips

• The video chat can be recorded and used as marketing assets for business development.
• Real-time experiences and authentic problem-solving can be documented and shared on the website and social media.
• These videos can also act as FAQs and testimonials.

Introducing a video chat option for your business is an attempt to encourage ease, comfort, and customer satisfaction. It is also exciting to note that as per reports, in Q1 of 2020, Zoom, a video calling app, recorded the highest number of downloads.

We live in times when ‘Work from home’ has become customary. With the combination of modern technology, AI, and video chatting features, it will be optimistic to predict a full-fledged ‘Shop from home’ culture in the nearest future.